North Schuykill beats ELCO in finale

DAN MACARTHUR/Times-Shamrock
North Schuylkill's Ethan Motsney (5) runs the ball as Eastern Lebanon County defenders Zach Carley (57), Steven Rhoades (54) and Jacob Stager try to corral him in their non-league game Saturday at Spartans Stadium.

There were plenty of possible distractions for North Schuylkill this week.

Classes and practices were cancelled for two days and Friday's game was pushed back a day because of Hurricane Sandy.

The Spartans were teetering on the edge of a District 11 playoff berth.

And head coach Rick Geist was suspended for the remainder of the season on Wednesday.

None of it seemed to matter when the Spartans took the field against Eastern Lebanon County Saturday.

Led by dual 100-yard rushers Matt Gownley and Ethan Motsney, the Spartans jumped out to a big lead and held on to beat ELCO 42-28 at Spartans Stadium.

"These kids come every week, work hard and that's a tribute to them," Spartans' assistant coach Anthony Fanelli said. "With the storm, we came in Wednesday night and prepared and got the extra day by moving the game to Saturday."

The Spartans' game plan looked the same as it has all year - feature heavy doses of Gownley and Motsney and let them pick up big chunks on the ground.

After the Spartans' Danny McSurdy ended the Raiders' first possession with an interception, Gownley took over.

The senior ran for 54 yards on the Spartans' first series and capped it with a 17-yard touchdown run.

Gownley also ran for a two-yard score after the Spartans again stopped the Raiders, and he also ran in both two-point conversions to give North Schuylkill a 16-0 lead after the first quarter.

A couple more stops by the Spartans' defense only resulted in sputtering possessions until Motsney took the ball around the right side of the line on a pitch from quarterback Bobby Grigas and scored 72 yards downfield.

Gownley punched in yet another conversion for a 24-0 lead.

Junior Matt Smarkanic opened the second half for North Schuylkill with another big run, a 52-yard score, and the Spartans cruised from there.

After a Raiders' touchdown, Grigas found McSurdy wide open on a fly pattern for a 76-yard touchdown, and Motsney added a 24-yard score two possessions later.

Gownley ended with 138 yards and Motsney, who surpassed the 1,000-yard plateau last week, added 155 yards to his season total.

The Raiders added two late scores, using a hurry-up passing attack against the Spartans' defensive reserves, but it was too little, too late.

All in all, it wasn't the way the Spartans had dreamed of sending off a group of seniors who won 33 Anthracite League games in their four years, but it was a win going into the playoffs none the less.

"They were ready to go today," Fanelli said. "It was Senior Day and we have six seniors and they've been around for forever it seems like. We definitely wanted to send them out on a good note. I think the underclassmen realized that and wanted to play for those seniors today."

Unfortunately for the Spartans, a win by Northern Lehigh Friday night knocked them out of contention for a fifth consecutive district playoff berth. Instead, the Spartans will be the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference Class AA playoffs and have the chance to close the season with two more home games.

"That's in the back of our mind, although we have to wait to see what other teams do. But we definitely want to have two home games," Fanelli said.

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